Stepped-up competition among India's shoe makers

The Indian shoe making industry in Agra has been hard hit by economic changes both at a national and an international level. Employees have lost their jobs and businesses have failed. Economic changes have since severely affected the industry resulting not only in loss of employment, but more crucially in a radical shake-up of its whole structure. The collapse of the Soviet Union, the region's biggest export market, also dealt a major blow. However, not all sectors have been equally affected. Research in India, co-ordinated by the UK Institute of Development Studies, examines how producers at the quality end of the market have managed to prosper in the newly competitive arena.